This person doesn't feel a connection with their family.

Hello,

Not feeling a connection with your family might seem out of ordinary, especially given how often it is in movies or stories or even people around us that show that they have emotional connection with their family members—as you have seen from what had happened with your siblings.

It might be that there is nothing wrong with you but a result of how you were brought up. Emotional connection is formed with people that you always talk to, communicate with, or have a similarity together. As an example, when forming friends at school or anywhere, you tend to form connection with those you share something, be it a hobby or an interest. The same would be said to your family.

Yes, it is true that you might be staying in the same house as your family but maybe you guys don't really spend time with each other as much for you to form a deeper emotional connection with them. Thus, when there is no emotional connection, it is not weird for you to not feel anything with what happened. Coming from someone who had grown up during the time where there were no smartphones, I would say I bonded more with my siblings and my family back then as we hung out and did activities together more as opposed to nowadays where we just focused on our activities on our smartphones and computers. So it is possible for families to not feel an emotional connection despite being together in the same house.

Yes, it might seem bad when others are crying and it makes you feel like this heartless human being. However, you feeling awful for not feeling sad makes it obvious that you are still sensitive to human feelings and not completely emotionless. It shows that you still care and that there is nothing wrong with you. You just have problems with not being emotionally connected with them. And that is okay as you can still try to form a connection with them by having activities together or hang out together more.

I hope this would help you.

Love,

The Advice Column Team